CPAFFC President Lin Songtian addresses International Youth Painting Invitational Exhibition

Chen Ke

O n Dec 26， the International Youth Painting Invitational Exhibition —“Best Wishes for the Winter Olympics”— opened at the China National Film Museum. The event was guided and hosted by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.

Lin Songtian， president of the CPAFFC， delivered a speech at the opening ceremony and presented awards to the first-prize winners of international works.

Lin said that as the Winter Olympics approached， the world had entered “Beijing time”. The flame of the Beijing Winter Olympics symbolizes peace and friendship through the Olympic spirit， which has been passed on from generation to generation. It contains the beautiful expectations of people around the globe and will once again ignite the common dream of all mankind， he said.

Lin noted that Beijing had prepared well to host the Games in a green， inclusive， open and clean way， and that China’s solemn commitment to “encouraging 300 million Chinese people to participate in winter sports”was becoming a reality.

Lin noted that the youth painting exhibition had collected nearly 30，000 works from Chinese provinces， regions and cities， including Hong Kong， Macao and Taiwan， as well as more than 1，900 excellent paintings created by children from 45 countries on five continents for the Beijing Winter Olympics. Children represent innocence and goodness， the future and hope of the world， Lin said.

The young artists from across the world expressed their common aspiration for peace， solidarity and friendship through painting. It was a most sincere gift to support the Beijing Winter Olympics， Lin said， adding that it was also the strongest repudiation of some ignorant Western politicians.

“It once again shows that any attempt to politicize the Olympic Games will not win the hearts of the people and will not succeed，” he said.

Lin remarked that Beijing was about to become the only city in the world to have hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics. At this difficult time of instability and uncertainty in the world， Lin said， mankind needs more than ever the positive energy of peace， friendship， solidarity， mutual trust and win-win cooperation. Beijing will surely host a simple， safe， splendid and extraordinary Winter Olympics and let the Olympic spirit of Faster， Higher， Stronger and Together flourish.

He said the organization stands ready to join hands with all parties to be guardians of the Olympic spirit， narrators of the Chinese story， practitioners of friendship and mutual trust and promoters of win-win cooperation and common development between China and the rest of the world. All will witness the success of the Beijing Winter Olympics， Lin said.

Zhang Qian， executive vicepresident of the Beijing People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries， attended and addressed the event. Lu Xiaomei， vice-president of Hebei Provincial Friendship Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries， and Moin ul Haque， Pakistani ambassador to China， sent video speeches to the event. Representatives of guiding and organizing units， along with Olympic champion Zhang Hui and Paralympic champion Liu Yukun presented awards to the winners and visited the painting exhibition together.

Since its launch in May last year， the painting exhibition has been warmly welcomed by youth at home and abroad and widely joined by foreign friendship organizations， friendship cities， overseas Chinese organizations， children’s organizations， previous host cities of Winter Olympics and international schools. Participants include 371 schools at 427 domestic institutions and 19 institutions from 36 foreign friendship organizations， representing about 100，000 people.

First， second and third prizes were awarded to 317 international paintings and 600 domestic paintings. The painting exhibition was held both online and offline.